To shop or not to shop on Friday
by Sid AndersonNovember 22nd, 2005 at 12:35:18
Over at Blue Oregon, contributor Caelan MacTavish discusses the annual “Buy Nothing Day” which falls on the biggest shopping day of the year, the Friday after Thanksgiving. MacTavish urges supporters of BND to consider an alterternative: Buy Local Day.
As a small bidness owner and a close friend of other small bidness owners, I always cringe a little when I start hearing about BND this time of year from dyed-in-the-wool liberals. For many small bidnesses, the Friday after Thanksgiving is a cash-cow. It’s the day that makes us breath a sigh of relief because it propels us into the next year with some good cash flow. And when we’ve got some extra padding we can donate to groups like Onward Oregon, become members of the ACLU, support the campaigns of progressive candidates,…
The underlying premise of BND is certainly good in its intent because it’s meant to send a message to big box corporate America, but as McTavish points out it fails to have an effect unless there is mass participation:
We need a more effective and easier method to economically protest. The point of Buy Nothing Day is to not only foster awareness of the inherent flaws in consumerism, but to also affect the corporate behemoths that we purchase our goods from. The impact of a collective boycott will only be felt if there is mass participation. If enough people bought nothing, reversing the market trend, Wal-Mart, Target, and the Gap would be brought to their knees – for one single day. But if that’s the purpose of the day, why don’t we change both the approach and the name to Buy Local Day?
I’ll drink a Hair of the Dog to that!
Oh, and if you want to add to the impact of Buy Local Day, avoid using your credit card and pay with cash or check at those small local retailers, otherwise the credit card goliaths are getting a piece of the action.
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:15 pm
This should be a monthy even, not just a yearly one. On second thought, semi-monthly. How about weekly? Ok, we SHOULD be purchasing locally all the time.